Secretary of State Candidate Has a Major Financial Stake in Canadian Tar Sands

Tar Sands Blockade ‏@KXLBlockade

Sec of State hopeful Susan Rice owns $1.25 mil in Canadian oil stocks, including TransCanada and Enbridge
http://www.onearth.org/article/susan-rice-obama-secretary-state-tar-sands-finances#.ULZ3IuYZxjk.twitter … #NoKXL


http://www.onearth.org/article/susan-rice-obama-secretary-state-tar-sands-finances

Susan Rice, the candidate believed to be favored by President Obama to become the next Secretary of State, holds significant investments in more than a dozen Canadian oil companies and banks that would stand to benefit from expansion of the North American tar sands industry and construction of the proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline. If confirmed by the Senate, one of Rice’s first duties likely would be consideration, and potentially approval, of the controversial mega-project.

Rice's financial holdings could raise questions about her status as a neutral decision maker. The current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Rice owns stock valued between $300,000 and $600,000 in TransCanada, the company seeking a federal permit to transport tar sands crude 1,700 miles to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, crossing fragile Midwest ecosystems and the largest freshwater aquifer in North America.

Beyond that, according to financial disclosure reports, about a third of Rice’s personal net worth is tied up in oil producers, pipeline operators, and related energy industries north of the 49th parallel -- including companies with poor environmental and safety records on both U.S. and Canadian soil. Rice and her husband own at least $1.25 million worth of stock in four of Canada’s eight leading oil producers, as ranked by Forbes magazine. That includes Enbridge, which spilled more than a million gallons of toxic bitumen into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River in 2010 -- the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history.

(More at the link. Apparently the corporate state wins every election.)